A material “pusher” or “pushing apparatus” or “containment plow” as described for example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,724,755 to Weagley, hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, generally includes at least one side extending forward and perpendicular from a mold board or central blade to assure that the material to be displaced is contained and remains in a position along and ahead of the pusher, and is not directed or permitted to roll off either side, as is the case with conventional plows.
Conventional pushers or containment plows, particularly those having sides and wear shoes that extend in front of the central blade, often experience difficulty in tracking the surface being plowed. In particular they may fail to thoroughly clean material (e.g., snow, ice) from depressions in such surfaces because the scraping edge of the plow is unable to contact a depressed surface, or when one side of the plow is lifted as the side wear shoe passes over a raised region. The disclosed material pusher includes a number of features that are designed to significantly improve the surface outcome or performance of such devices. For example, the disclosed embodiments avoid rigid contact with the surface being plowed ahead of the blade or scraping edge. And the use of a segmented, two-edged scraping edge, allows small sections of the overall scraping edge to adapt to depressions in the surface being plowed so that “bird bath” (puddle) depressions are not missed. Moreover, the use of flexible/compliant materials, the re-positioning of wear shoes and an improved coupling mechanism that rigidly attaches the apparatus to a bucket, yet provides a degree of compliance between the loader and the pushing apparatus, enable the apparatus to reliably track the surface being cleared. These improvements, along with on-board sensors to monitor down pressure and/or tilt of the apparatus, assure that the apparatus can be effectively employed to provide improved material pushing performance when compared to conventional containment plows.
Accordingly, the following disclosure is directed to aspects and embodiments of an improved pusher or containment plow including an equipment coupler having a shock absorbing compliant interface, an improved chassis manufactured using tab and slot components, wear shoes that are disassociated from the side plates of the plow chassis, and a multi-component scraping edge, where the tilt of the pusher and/or the aggressiveness of the edge is monitored by a sensor system. Also disclosed are side plates having external reinforcing gussets and a compliant lower working surface for moving snow or other materials over large areas such as parking lots, roadways, and runways, for example.
In some embodiments, the disclosed material pusher can be affixed as an extension to the bucket of a front end loader or backhoe, and accordingly the material pusher may be interconnected via an engagement of the bucket within a receiving structure located on the backside of the pusher. For example, attached to the back of the moldboard. In other embodiments one of a number of quick-coupling mechanisms known for use on skid steer and other heavy equipment buckets and attachments may be employed.
In accordance with an aspect of one embodiment disclosed herein, there is provided a material pushing apparatus, comprising: an upstanding central blade, including a longitudinal edge along a bottom side of said blade, and at least one removable side plate attached to and extending generally forward from the central blade near an end thereof; a scraping edge flexibly attached to the central blade along the bottom longitudinal edge; and a position sensor for monitoring relative position between the scraping edge and central blade, and producing a position signal representing the relative position.
In accordance with another aspect disclosed herein there is provided a method for operating a material pushing apparatus, said apparatus comprising a material pushing apparatus, including an upstanding central blade, having a longitudinal edge along a bottom side of said blade, and at least one removable side plate attached to and extending generally forward from the central blade near an end thereof; a scraping edge flexibly attached to the central blade along the bottom longitudinal edge; a position sensor for monitoring relative position between the scraping edge and central blade, and producing a position signal representing the relative position; a tilt sensor for monitoring relative tilt angle of the central blade, and producing a tilt signal representing the relative tilt angle; a visual indicator; and a processor; said processor operating in accordance with a program stored in memory associated with said processor, to periodically receive at least one of the position signal and the tilt signal as inputs and to update at least one output signal in response thereto, where a representation of the output signal is displayed on the visual indicator.
In accordance with a further embodiment, there is disclosed a material pushing apparatus, comprising: an upstanding central blade, including a longitudinal edge along the bottom side of said blade, and left and right vertical side plates attached to and extending generally forward from or near each of the ends of the central blade, said side plates being bolted on and detachable from the blade, and including a flexible skirting on the bottom thereof, said skirting being inwardly biased and held at the bottom edge of the side plates; a scraping edge(s) flexibly attached to the central blade along the bottom longitudinal edge, where the scraping edge includes both forward facing and rearward facing components that are angularly oriented and spaced apart; a coupler flexibly attached to the rear of the blade for attaching the pushing apparatus to a bucket of a vehicle for moving the pushing apparatus, said coupler including a plurality of C-shaped receivers, at least one of said receivers including opposed upper and lower arms extending rearward relative to the central blade and forming a slot therebetween for receiving an edge of the bucket, wherein at least one of said arms further includes a cam having a high friction surface thereon (e.g., teeth) for contacting a surface of the bucket when the bucket is placed in the slot, the cam thereby affixing the bucket to the coupler (without the need for additional chains or other binding devices); a sensor for monitoring the relative position between the scraping edge and blade, and optionally including a visual indicator to reflect change in the relative position); and a pivotable wear shoe attached to and behind the central blade to provide a further ground contact surface behind the apparatus when in operation.
Also disclosed with respect to yet a further embodiment is a pushing apparatus including an inverted “V” or angled scraping edge(s) for attachment along the lower longitudinal edge of a pusher moldboard, comprising: a plurality of rigid sections; said sections being compliantly or flexibly attached along a bottom edge of the blade so as to be displaceable in order track the surfaces being plowed and provide improved surface outcome, as well as to yield to other irregularities within the surface being plowed (e.g., curbs, manhole covers, sewer grates, etc.), thereby preventing damage to the irregular object as well as the scraper blade section.
The various embodiments described herein are not intended to limit the disclosure to those embodiments described. On the contrary, the intent is to cover all alternatives, modifications, and equivalents as may be included within the spirit and scope of the various embodiments and equivalents set forth. For a general understanding, reference is made to the drawings. In the drawings, like references have been used throughout to designate identical or similar elements. It is also noted that the drawings may not have been drawn to scale and that certain regions may have been purposely drawn disproportionately so that the features and aspects could be properly depicted.